Severin Films Closes Out Summer With ‘The Ugly Stepsister,’ Joko Anwar Collection and ‘Gwendoline’ in 4K
- Horror Movies Uncut
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
Severin Films is continuing its 20th anniversary celebration with three physical media releases spanning contemporary body horror, Indonesian genre cinema and cult exploitation.
The label has detailed its late-summer slate, led by the North American disc premiere of Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister, a four-disc Joko Anwar collection and the North American UHD premiere of Just Jaeckin’s Gwendoline. All three releases are now available for preorder.
Blichfeldt’s feature directorial debut The Ugly Stepsister brings its grisly reinterpretation of the Cinderella story to physical media in North America. Lea Myren stars as Elvira, a young woman willing to undergo increasingly brutal cosmetic procedures as she competes for the attention of a prince in a world where physical beauty has become inseparable from pain.
The body horror film earned considerable attention following its Sundance premiere and went on to receive an Oscar nomination. Severin’s release includes both UHD and Blu-ray editions with Dolby Vision on the 4K presentation and more than six hours of supplemental material.
Among the extras are two audio commentaries, interviews with Blichfeldt, Myren and Thea Sofie Loch Næss, a feature examining the film’s effects, a deleted scene and Blichfeldt’s short films How Do You Like My Hair? and Sara’s Intimate Confessions. Effects artist Thomas Foldberg also discusses the film’s character and gore work.
Severin is also putting a major spotlight on Indonesian filmmaker Joko Anwar with The Sacred & The Cursed: The Joko Anwar Collection.
The four-disc set brings together Satan’s Slaves, Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion, Impetigore and Dead Time, with all four presented from director-approved masters. The collection contains more than 10 combined hours of newly produced special features.
The set provides a concentrated look at several stages of Anwar’s horror career. His 2017 Satan’s Slaves reworked the supernatural mythology of Sisworo Gautama Putra’s 1980 film, following a struggling family whose mother’s death opens the door to an escalating nightmare involving ancestral superstition and the occult. The disc arrives with more than two hours of supplements, including Anwar commentary, deleted scenes and discussions with cast members, producers, cinematographer Ical Tanjung and composer Aghi Narottama.
The collection continues with 2022’s Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion, which relocates the surviving Suwono family to a deteriorating Jakarta apartment complex. Its disc contains three hours of new special features alongside an archival making-of featurette.
Impetigore follows a young woman returning to her ancestral village in search of an inheritance, only to encounter the history and curse attached to her family. Its supplements include discussions with Anwar, Christine Hakim, Asmara Abigail and Faradina Mufti, along with material examining the cinematography, music and production.
Rounding out the collection is Dead Time, also known as Kala. The 2007 noir-horror film follows a police officer and reporter investigating a series of murders that draw them into corruption and supernatural folklore. The release marks the film’s worldwide home video premiere and is sourced from a scan approved by Anwar, with more than two hours of newly produced extras.
The third major release brings Severin back to its own beginnings.
Just Jaeckin’s Gwendoline was Severin’s first release when the company launched in 2006. Twenty years later, the label is revisiting the filmmaker’s final feature with its first North American UHD edition.
Based on the Sweet Gwendoline comic strip, the 1984 erotic adventure stars Tawny Kitaen and Brent Huff alongside Zabou. Severin’s three-disc collection contains both the uncut 105-minute European version and the 88-minute U.S. cut, released as The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak. The European version has been newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative and is presented in Dolby Vision.
More than six hours of bonus material accompany the release, including commentaries from Jaeckin and stars Kitaen and Huff, archival interviews, production and design features, and a previously unseen interview with Kitaen. The third disc is dedicated to the U.S. release version and additional archival material.
Together, the three releases continue Severin’s 20th anniversary programming by moving between a recent international horror release, four films from one of Indonesia’s most prominent contemporary genre filmmakers and a title directly connected to the label’s own history.
The Ugly Stepsister, The Sacred & The Cursed: The Joko Anwar Collection and Gwendoline are available for preorder from Severin Films.
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